RAG man Peterson: Slams ISU on Attendance

[Cybyassociation]

We were picked to be everybody's favorite chew toy this year . . . remember all the media pundants . . remember the Big XII pre season poll of coaches . . remember Iowa was going to win the National Championship . . remember? And you rag on ISU fans for not buying 50K season tickets. Come on man . . when ISU starts winning the fan base will be there . . what if ISU would have defeated KSU and Nebraska? Do you think the Missouri game would have sold out?

:skeptical: I didnt say anywhere about season tickets. I'm tired of the "when we start winning, then I'll buy tickets" attitude. ISU needs the fan base NOW if they want to win those close games. Games like Nebraska. IMO, we convert some of those drives inside the North redzone if there were more ISU fans then Nebraska fans down there cheering against us. It was absolutely sickening to listen to on the DVR. The visitors were louder than OUR own fans. Not because our fans werent loud, but because our own fans didnt come to the game. There's some sort of lapse of reason that Cyclones have. A missing connection between big games and attendance.

 

[justcynn]

for Jack Trice to hit 50,000 fans consistently there has to be some POSITIVE buzz around the program beyond the BASE - Chizik was a National name that created buzz = more tickets sold - him not winning and then leaving was buzz kill. Some upsets under Rhoads have created some buzz but not enough to pull in the fringe fan that was content to have house parties and watch Iowa's quest for the National Championship on TV. Iowa's preseason buzz while Iowa State was dealing with Conference realignment hangover and low expectations hurt more than most think. Its also hard to create buzz when the central Iowa media seems to focus on these negative aspects of the program and pumping up Iowa at the same time. the schedule this year was buzz kill, Utah specifically - we had some fringe fans at that game that didn't come back after that. I say get yourself to the game and if you must rant on why others are bad fans - then bring a friend rather than starting endless threads that only seem to cement the idea that we have lousy fans. Fact is we have GREAT fans, around 40,000 of them - they have been there through it all and the other 10,000 will show when we have that positive buzz again.

 

[cysocool]

:skeptical: I didnt say anywhere about season tickets. I'm tired of the "when we start winning, then I'll buy tickets" attitude. ISU needs the fan base NOW if they want to win those close games. Games like Nebraska. IMO, we convert some of those drives inside the North redzone if there were more ISU fans then Nebraska fans down there cheering against us. It was absolutely sickening to listen to on the DVR. The visitors were louder than OUR own fans. Not because our fans werent loud, but because our own fans didnt come to the game. There's some sort of lapse of reason that Cyclones have. A missing connection between big games and attendance.

Do you think bashing our fan base will fill Jack Trice? We probably came off the worst spring, summer, and fall PR campaign in the history of iowa state and still averaged over 40,000. I agree that ISU needs more fans and we need to grow our base now like you said, but bashing the casual fans won't get them there. Wining consistently and more often with better bowl games will help.

How do you recruit new fans when the central iowa media predicts the demise of your BCS conference on a weekly basis? How do you improve perception of a athletic department when the DSM Register assigns a Hack like Peterson to cover your program? NOT by ISU fans attacking other ISU fans. The Rag will take care of that for us...

 

[Tornado man]

:skeptical: I didnt say anywhere about season tickets. I'm tired of the "when we start winning, then I'll buy tickets" attitude. ISU needs the fan base NOW if they want to win those close games.

On what planet does this happen? Fans react to the team's performance - not just in Ames, but everywhere.
K-State, back in their glory days, didn't start packing their stadium until Snyder first got some signature wins.
JTS will be packed for Iowa next fall; let's win it, and then those fans will be back.

 

[Cybyassociation]

Maybe I came off a bit harsh...I didnt mean to come off as bashing the fanbase. More so calling it out, like other posters have said, about pathetic excuses for not attending games. The fans are there to go to games, but night games, games during crop season, games on Halloween, games in the morning keep them from coming.

 

[cayin]

oh people don't get it. Our fan base does very well considering our history. As far as Peterson, he could have worded it better. The way it is worded implies there is less people there then there really is. He needs to be more responsible, because it is crap like this that re-enforces myths and half truths regarding the Cyclones.

 

[justcynn]

Maybe I came off a bit harsh...I didnt mean to come off as bashing the fanbase. More so calling it out, like other posters have said, about pathetic excuses for not attending games. The fans are there to go to games, but night games, games during crop season, games on Halloween, games in the morning keep them from coming.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but a win against Utah or even a close game continues the good feeling the program had going after the big texas tech win, the opposite happened, then a beat down at OU, then an Upset of sorts against an underperforming texas team juiced the base again but not necessarily the fringe, then a close loss to Nebraska that was probably one of the best games ever at jack trice then a disappointing loss to Colorado and people wonder why there were only 41,000 paid for Missouri. Winning brings fans, coming close or inconsistently winning is just good for hope. We have been selling hope for over 20 years now. Need to sell winning, the schedule hurts the sale and people don't care to pay to watch other great teams win, they want to see their team win. Lighten up the schedule, establish a tradition of winning and watch the stadium fill

 

[cysocool]

Maybe I came off a bit harsh...I didnt mean to come off as bashing the fanbase. More so calling it out, like other posters have said, about pathetic excuses for not attending games. The fans are there to go to games, but night games, games during crop season, games on Halloween, games in the morning keep them from coming.

I can understand your frustration. I've been attending games since 1979 and since that first game, i've dreamed of that south end zone bowled in and full of screaming ISU fans... You're right we need more fans- like you, to keep up the support and with CPR, CFH, and JP we can get it done...

 

[DoJO]

If found this story after a brief search. Iowa Sate is not listed. Interesting read.

Birmingham News survey shows college football season ticket sales down across country | al.com



I couldn't find ISU's 2010 season ticket sales, but assume it is less than our record of just over 27,000 in '06.

 

[justcynn]

If found this story after a brief search. Iowa Sate is not listed. Interesting read.

Birmingham News survey shows college football season ticket sales down across country | al.com



I couldn't find ISU's 2010 season ticket sales, but assume it is less than our record of just over 27,000 in '06.

Its an interesting read. Season tickets are important for sure, but this article just shows winning sells tickets, btw is Jim Walden now responsible for Washington State season ticket sales? Just shows it could be a lot worse.

 

[cyatheart]

We were picked to be everybody's favorite chew toy this year . . . remember all the media pundants . . remember the Big XII pre season poll of coaches . . remember Iowa was going to win the National Championship . . remember? And you rag on ISU fans for not buying 50K season tickets. Come on man . . when ISU starts winning the fan base will be there . . what if ISU would have defeated KSU and Nebraska? Do you think the Missouri game would have sold out?

If we beat KSU and Nebraska I do not beleive there would be any more people at the Mizzou game. Why? It happened before, Missouri 2004 to go to b12 championship game, terrible attendance.

Going to take years of consistent comptetiveness to get the stadium full consistenlty. This is a 30 year hole that was dug here people, it is going to take more than one or two years to dig out.

 

[Judoka]

Talk about making something out of nothing. So he slightly mis-typed something in a spur of the moment live chat and you're calling him horribly anti-ISU? Talk about a persecution complex. Anyone who has read the register at all this year can tell you that whenever the subject of improving facilities and keeping coaches comes up, Peterson very appropriatly points out that is hard to do with a base of season ticket holders of around 33k. This is a fact. Another 10k season ticket holders would bring millions more into the program just in ticket sales and Cyclone Club donations to get decent seats. That doesn't even count parking, merchandise, concessions, and anything else.

You're just upset that he's calling us out on a very true and embarrassing fact. The fact that you can't parse sentences doesn't mean he's the one being an *******. Honestly I don't know why anyone would want to cover the Cyclones if they can expect to have to deal with fans like the guy who started this thread.

 

[justcynn]

Talk about making something out of nothing. So he slightly mis-typed something in a spur of the moment live chat and you're calling him horribly anti-ISU? Talk about a persecution complex. Anyone who has read the register at all this year can tell you that whenever the subject of improving facilities and keeping coaches comes up, Peterson very appropriatly points out that is hard to do with a base of season ticket holders of around 33k. This is a fact. Another 10k season ticket holders would bring millions more into the program just in ticket sales and Cyclone Club donations to get decent seats. That doesn't even count parking, merchandise, concessions, and anything else.

You're just upset that he's calling us out on a very true and embarrassing fact. The fact that you can't parse sentences doesn't mean he's the one being an *******. Honestly I don't know why anyone would want to cover the Cyclones if they can expect to have to deal with fans like the guy who started this thread.

read the link to the article talking about attendance being down. Florida State sold 34,000 Season Tickets? Washington State less than 8,000? Sure the late season attendance is disappointing, but a REPORTER might add some context to the statement "Iowa State needs to add to its base but in light of National Trends they are holding their own" rather than taking the approach of your post which is if Iowa State can't even sell tickets so how can they ever expect to improve....gets old, really old. Kansas State was down 11%? Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

 

[InCytful]

How many threads about attendance can this site (and the DMR) have? Threads of the same people ripping on the fans for attendance aren't going to fill the seats. I've had season tickets for 10 years, and watched the cost of them almost double plus the donation level doubled. Working hard to keep getting them in the future.

Put a good product on the field and the tavern fans will show up to fill the empty seats and drink the beer at the tailgates. Seems to me that CPR is doing that.

Some daytime kickoffs would help those of us who travel to the games, too (again, comes with winning more games to get on at 11 or 2:30 instead of 6PM). Work harder to get the students coming to the games. A&M gets some astronomical amount of students to the game.

I don't think Petersen is necessarily ripping ISU, and he may be somewhat right, but it's part the staff's responsibility to put the excitement out there that gets the bandwagon fans to part with their $$$$, too. Do a good job as a staff and the team will win games, putting fans in the seat and $$$ in their contracts. I think they'll get us there. Go State!

 

[cysocool]

Talk about making something out of nothing. So he slightly mis-typed something in a spur of the moment live chat and you're calling him horribly anti-ISU? Talk about a persecution complex. Anyone who has read the register at all this year can tell you that whenever the subject of improving facilities and keeping coaches comes up, Peterson very appropriatly points out that is hard to do with a base of season ticket holders of around 33k. This is a fact. Another 10k season ticket holders would bring millions more into the program just in ticket sales and Cyclone Club donations to get decent seats. That doesn't even count parking, merchandise, concessions, and anything else.

You're just upset that he's calling us out on a very true and embarrassing fact. The fact that you can't parse sentences doesn't mean he's the one being an *******. Honestly I don't know why anyone would want to cover the Cyclones if they can expect to have to deal with fans like the guy who started this thread.

Ok, I'll apologize to Randy Peterson, Rick Brown, Marc Hansen, and the Des Moines Register for allowing them to cover ISU athletics for all these years... For all the Headlines, Controversies, etc. over the years that helped sell millions of papers and make millions of dollars. ISU has laid out the red carpet for The Register and they've always made sure someone like the Rag is there to appropriately point out who we are.

I can only dream that someday Randy Peterson wakes up and feels ISU and some of its fans don't appreciate what he's done for us and retires.... :smile:

 

[Judoka]

Get over yourself. I won't argue that the rag hasn't always been fair to ISU, but tell me one thing about Peterson's reporting of football this year that wasn't fair. Or what about when they published Arnaud's letter to the fans?

 

[cysocool]

Get over yourself. I won't argue that the rag hasn't always been fair to ISU, but tell me one thing about Peterson's reporting of football this year that wasn't fair. Or what about when they published Arnaud's letter to the fans?

One thing? The moment he stepped into the Jacobson building to begin his 2010 campaign to remind ISU fans why we can't succeed...

 

[clone52]

That attendance figure is a false statement the way he worded it. You can go and find the average attendance figure for the season and its around 45k. The lowest was the Missouri game which was 41k. Now that is tickets sold and therefore the AD received the money for those tickets and therefore it does not matter how many butts were in the seats in a $ mind set, as long as the ticket is sold. Does it help having more fans attend game, absolutely, but if people buy tickets and do not attend the game, it does not mean we still cannot pay the coaches current salary.

How does attendance base mean average? I'm sure he was talking season ticket base.

 

[Ficklone02]

What % of a stadium do AD's typically want to fill with season tix? Our stadium only holds what, 55k with hillsides....somewheres around 47k w/o hillsides? It would be nice to move from 33k season tix to, say 40k, but I would think thats about the maximum the AD would want to sell as season tix right?

 

[Judoka]

What % of a stadium do AD's typically want to fill with season tix? Our stadium only holds what, 55k with hillsides....somewheres around 47k w/o hillsides? It would be nice to move from 33k season tix to, say 40k, but I would think thats about the maximum the AD would want to sell as season tix right?

If every single seat in Jack Trice was filled with season ticketholders Jamie Pollard would be a very happy man.

And our Athletic Department budget would be millions of dollars larger. So our football coaches would also be very happy men with their larger contracts and better facilities.